Samantha's Story...

"Sammi has been experiencing different health issues for some time now. On and off she had had sharp abdominal pain which had her missing school throughout the winter. Recently she had some difficulty breathing, and had developed an enlarged lymph node on her neck. (about the size of a golf ball) Treatment with antibiotics did not relieve her symptoms so her doctor had a chest xray performed. The xray revealed "spots in her chest". A following CT scan showed a football size mass in her chest. She was immediately transferred to DeVos. The next day a cervical lymph node biopsy was performed and its pathology results indicated Hodgkin's Lymphoma."

This is the information posted on my niece, Sammi's, care page at DeVos. What a week.

"Today we found out the results of Sammi's PET scan. It showed that Sam has lymphoma in her pelvis. She also has two masses in her chest cavity one of which sits behind her heart. The good news is that the cancer hasn't spread to her brain. They have staged her at Stage 3.The pressure in her chest from the crowding caused by the lymphomas has placed her in a high risk category. Sam was sprung from the hospital yesterday to have lunch with her family and some friends. She also got to go home for a little bit today and returned to the hospital tonight at 8:00. Tomorrow she starts chemotherapy. First they have to start what is called a PIC line (Percutaneous Intravenous Catheter) which is like a long catheter placed in the vein near her elbow and follows the vein till it reaches the larger vessels near her heart. It can remain in place for weeks at a time. She will have 4 sessions of chemo 21 days in length. Her whole treatment time should take about 8 months. Sam will be able to join her family on a trip to Boyne this coming weekend but will have to return to DeVos on Monday and will probably be there until Thursday next week. The rest of her chemotherapy will be done on an outpatient basis, yeah!!! We are thankful that the success rate for curing Hodgkin's Lymphoma is very high (almost 100%) and the fact that Sam is so young is definitely in her favor. Continue to include her in your prayers that she will not have too many side effects from her therapy. Thanks to everyone for all your love and support. We will keep you posted."

There is not much more to post than these excerpts from Sammi's care page. We are thankful that we are all able to spend the weekend with her at Boyne coming up Friday. It'll be great for her and her family to get away from all of this. Please, please keep her in your prayers. If any of you are interested in keeping up, please visit her blog.

http://www.carepages.com/carepages/SammiBergeman

We all love you so, so much Sammi!

Frustration...

Try to play along...scroll down. Scroll up. Scroll down. Scroll up. I don't know why these pics didn't show up in my previous post. Better luck next time...

Yowza...

Monday morning, as I was getting ready for work, Keith came into the bathroom to take his eyes out, {as he puts it} turned away from me and , as he started pulling down his underwear, {yes, eyebrows are raised} asked me, "Do you see a cut...where my underwear are ripped?" I didn't take a picture of them, but I've included a picture of his police pants. His ripped police pants. his ripped from the crotch to his calf police pants. Yowza! He was scaling a fence and, well...both pair of pants ended up in the trash. I asked him when in the night it happened. He told me it was his third call of the night. Luckily, he had an extra pair at work because I thought he had to wear them all night this way...

Another new thing going on at home {besides bike riding} is this whole Kyle-sleeping-in-his-own-bed-at-a-respectable-bedtime thing. Yowza. Okay, terrible mom moment # 769...Kyle moved effortlessly from crib to bed way back when and stayed put until he realized he could actually get out of bed on his own. I loved it when he called my name every morning to pick him up off his bed. Anyway, he used to get out of bed all the time and we had to shut his door and he would fall asleep directly behind it. Nice rug burns on the face from sliding him on the carpet with the door every night. Once he could reach the door knob, well it was about the exact same time Keith went back to the road. September '07. That would be the time Kyle started sleeping with mama bear. He hasn't looked back since. Now what's the bigger problem? Kyle became my indefinite bed partner? {who can blame him? I've fallen asleep on his bed by some miracle and it's tough. How can he resist my yummy 400 count sheets, ample pillows and down comforters?} Or is it that he napped every day at daycare {or would fall asleep on the way home from total exhaustion} and stayed up until I went to bed at 11pm? {even though I didn't want to} Or could it be that he still has pee issues when he is sleeping? {heavy sleeper-more my big problem than his, I guess}

Terrible mom moment # 813...I decided to buy a tv that ONLY gets used at bedtime. I decided that was a bad thing to do with the first one but by number 3...ah. We've been struggling but we're getting there. I think the sleep happens at about 10 or after, but we're getting there. Kyle has even woken up every night to yell my name and tell me he wants me and I make him get up to pee and all is well and he falls back asleep within minutes. Ahhh, life. Tami made the deal with him that he can stay up while the others nap if he goes to bed good for me at night. So far...okay. Even in his sleep, he seems pretty p'ed off to be in his own bed. Keith's new schedule will prove to be hard on all of us for a bit. I worked with Kyle while Keith was on but he had two nights off and all went to heck. In the end it will all work out. Actually it'll be nice for K to be home every night. Consistency. life is good.

In other fascinating news, Andrew picked up his new glasses last night. He was stuck on blue and I didn't have the heart to tell him no. I tried talking him out of the color but when he told me he'd even pick the Barbie ones as long as the name on them was a sticker only, I knew I needed to choose my battle. The glasses are pretty sweet. Blue and green. I think they are too big now that I see a pic, but oh well, I guess...

check these out...super duper cool...

One final piece of something...Caleb's class goes to {overnight} camp tomorrow morning and I get to go too! Yippee that the rain has stopped because I don't do rain camping! I am so excited to go. I haven't packed for either of us yet {go figure} but I get to look forward to spending the day with another fun mom and Caleb's really fun teacher! Double yippee!

****it dawned on me the other morning that either in one of my posts or in a comment to another blogger, I used the word WHOA but typed it as WOAH! Yowza! Why on earth I remembered that, I don't know!!! I am not a total idiot. Just a semi.

Birthday Fun, take Two...

Saturday afternoon we, along with Pat and Jen, headed to Holland for more birthday celebrating. I should say we all headed to Holland with extra children in tow. Once inside crazy Bounce, Caleb overheard the desk lady saying we could only do the one hour bounce. Huh?? Apparently until May 1st, CB is only open until 3 and it was almost 2. The lady commented to me about having all of the boys in my vehicle and we chatted briefly. After the conversation she offered to let us stay past closing. Nice lady.

Everyone sweated their butts off. Then we headed to a local park for a cookout and cupcakes. Other than a small {concussion} bump in the road, {I am sooo sorry again for that} everyone had a great time, including Jack. Thank you, boys, for making Andrew's birthday so much fun!

Birthday Fun, Take One...

Store bought cake...

Making a wish...

Steee-rike!!!!

'Went bowling Tuesday for Andrew's birthday with my fam. {Stratton's next weekend} 'Back to my house for cake, ice cream and presents. Short and sweet.

Two Wheels, New Positions And Cold Showers...

I got Kyle's bike out during break. He rode around on it but I noticed his little knees were up pretty close to the handle bars. Time to move 'em up. Shoot. they don't go up any further. We have another bike the next size up. We have a complete service bike shop at our house. All sizes. This one was Andrew's. {as was Kyle's} Andrew's bikes have kept up their appearances quite well considering Andrew didn't decide to ride a bike until 2 summers ago. Anyway, the "new" one is one that Isaac uses when he comes over. Too big for Kyle, but I thought I could transfer the training wheels from the small one to the big one. Nope. Keith and I decided to keep them off the little bike and get new wheels for the big bike. I had Wednesday off last week so that is the day we did the attempted switcharoo. We decided to just let Kyle try out his bike without wheels. Since it is small, he would be close to the ground come falling time. He tried it in the yard and did well trying to ride from Keith to myself. We worked on that for maybe 10 minutes. Thursday the two of them worked on it, on the road, for about the same time. Friday I looked for wheels at Walmart but no luck. I came home and told Keith. he said no problem because Kyle has bike riding down. I made a video that I am dying to share, but we're having issues. My little USB cable is missing from Northland so everything Kristin and I have taken a picture of or have videoed is stored safely on our little cameras. I hope to share soon.

Kyle is a lot like Isaac. They are both ALL BOY and little phases either of them. I wish they were closer in age. Anyway, Isaac started riding a two wheeled bike when he was 3 or 4...cannot remember which...and I wasn't too surprised that kyle is the same way. I am so happy for him. He feels more independent this way. Good for him. Bad for us. I was looking forward to a little more relaxation camping this year. Now that the wheels are off, he pedals so much faster than he did with them on, just to keep upright I'm sure, and now I know he will just take off on us when we turn our heads for a second. Kids...

In other news, Keith interviewed for a detective position and he got it! He got the call yesterday! I am so happy for him, happy for the boys, happy for us! He starts the first Monday in May. Day shift, baby! We've never had that before, so it'll definitely be an adjustment for the two of us. This is going to be so great. Weekends and holidays off. Us having a life. WOOT! Suits and ties. Maybe no suit coats but definitely ties. More shopping. A pay cut, but I think it'll be okay. That would be the scariest part. And did I mention how great it'll be for our family?? Ooh la la. Happy days.

Oh wait. Before I said that, I should have mentioned that I took a cold shower this morning. I wanted to wash a load of whites but couldn't do it in cold water. Perfect. Oh, haha, what's perfect is that Keith agreed to call Lascko and, hmm, we need a new hot water heater. No fixing the beast. But, lucky for us, they are running a 25% off special on all water heaters this month. Lucky us. It only cost us 1100.00 this morning. Hooray. Did I also mention the pay cut? Double Yikes!!

10 Years Ago Today...

Yes. I remember the day like it was yesterday. Or maybe even this morning. The memory is still that vivid. You know how, after delivery, you say you'll never do it again and people tell you it is because the pain is so new and once it passes you kind of forget? I am no fool. That horrible memory has never left my brain. I knew, after Andrew, that I was done. Wow. He was my first, and only, naturally delivered baby. Yikes. {Yes, I know that I have a 3rd child...but when keith and I talked about another baby, I already knew of Hackley's rule to have a C-section with a prior} It was the absolute worst pain I ever felt in my WHOLE. ENTIRE. LIFE. The pain started late in the evening on the 14th while I was home with Caleb. Pat was still at work and Kristin, who was my go to girl at the time, was out with a friend with her phone turned off. {sorry to throw you under the bus like that Kristin...kind of just returning the favor. :)} I had to call Pat home. I just cried and cried in the shower. I had back labor. Horrible, horrible back labor. Back labor that lasted the entire duration of labor.

Andrew William Tallquist, I love your little self.

Today, at noon, my baby will officially be 10. Time sure does kick you in the butt when you aren't looking. Andrew chose to bring suckers to school to share with his classmates and his teachers because another classmate is having a birthday today as well and she is bringing cupcakes. Tonight, after work, we are going bowling with my family and then heading back home for cake, ice cream and presents. We will celebrate again in two weeks with the Strattons at Boyne. Fun times ahead. Don't feel bad for children of blended families...at least not my children. They have twice as much love poured on them by having two sets of parents plus imagine the love extended from 4 sets of grandparents!! Yowza! Add in extra aunts, uncles and cousins and you can all feel the warm fuzzies.

I love you Andrew. Happy Birthday, baby doll!!

A little Bit Of This, A Little Bit Of That...

We've been working on a ton of stuff with Kyle lately. {more of that in the next post} Probably too much, but I don't think so. It just feels that way sometimes. The other day I walked by Kyle's room and noticed, after yet another long cleaning process, that he left a ton of his cars and trucks out while he was playing with his helmet checkers. I told him he needed to pick up one toy in order to play with another. I went on and on about picking up after himself and all that. His response to me was that all the cars and trucks were watching the football game. I can't argue that logic. He had them all lined up like they were at a drive in theater. How sweet.

Friday, daycare put on an egg hunt. There was big talk about there being a big prize for a golden egg or something like that. Imagine my surprise when I picked Kyle up and he handed me the ginormous chocolate bunny box. He found the golden ticket and won the bunny. Score. Even better than that {for me} was that the TenBrinkman kiddies were coming over that night and Kyle got to share the chocolate goodness with them. Score again.

Easter was {obviously} Sunday. Kyle and I met up with the boys, along with Pat, Jen and Abbi, at church. Kyle was Kyle, which made my day pretty much...you get the idea. We headed to my parent's afterward for family time and a yummy dinner. We hung out and watched Ghostbusters. We went home later that afternoon to feed Keith, who had been sleeping all day. He's not feeling well. 3rd shift is getting to him. Lack of sleep is getting to him. I think he's just getting too old. ;) The boys grabbed their baskets and went through them. One of Andrew's gifts was Uno Spin. We played it later, waiting for Grandma and Grandpa Stratton to call, letting us know they were home from Arizona. Too bad they got home after 8:00. The boys were all so excited to finally get to see them.

Caleb was a little disappointed in one of his candy gifts. He wanted to know why the Easter Bunny would get him Whoppers when he should know that Caleb doesn't like them. I hope this solidifies the fact that the Easter Bunny does exist. I mean, seriously, duh! I would certainly never buy him Whoppers. I know he can't stand them!!!

'Hope everyone had a happy Easter.

Killer...

Looks. Kyle has tons of looks. Most of them are not too nice.
Last Tuesday Andrew had his annual eye appointment. His eyes were dilated so he needed the rockin' Maxine glasses. Kyle apparently needed a pair, too. Later, he fell asleep wearing them. Am I a bad mom for taking this picture? Maybe you'll change your mind after knowing that while waiting in the van for Caleb to purchase bananas in Plumbs, I got out of the front seat, climbed into the back seat, fixed the falling glasses and snapped this shot. And another. And a third. how could I resist? Kyle is usually adorable when he is sleeping. Usually...

Skipping ahead, Easter morning was a hoot. I didn't just happen to catch this look. I was given this look. Kyle's new love is Legos. {stupid things-I swore we'd never own them again} He was p'ed off that the EB brought him a Lego truck because he wanted Lego people. Who knew?

I guess the EB got it right in the end. A new moofie for Kyle to watch at bedtime.

Just Another day In Paradise...

Saturday Kristin talked me into taking the boys to Pizza Hut with her and the kids for lunch. She needed to use up three free pizza certificates before they expire and told me I'd be out 6.00 for my half of our yummy lunch. For the record, with the tip, our bill was like 34.00 and some change. Dang. When the two of us go, we split two things and drink water. 6 bucks. Caleb wanted wings, each of the kids wanted an appetizer and real drinks, Alli doesn't like pizza and, well, 34.00 came and went...right out of our pockets.

Kristin wanted to take a little trip to the mall and I wasn't up for it. The garage was calling my name. Andrew decided to go with Kristin and Alli {there was mention of ice cream} and the other two TenBrinkmans came home with me. I guess i should have offered all of them ice cream to go with Kristin. It's fun what a little treat can do to get little boys to shop at Victoria's Secret. Hehe.

The kids played outside while I cleaned the garage. They found a toad. The toad peed on Issac. The boys thought that was cool.

It was nice for Kyle to have a friend to play with. He loves and looks up to both of his brothers but with the age differences, it is nice to have a friend closer in age. Isaac probably doesn't feel the same. He, too, wants to hang with the big kids. I don't think it is Caleb and Andrew. I think it is because he loves me sooo much and since he knows I am so cool, it is safe for him to assume the boys are too.

We brought home an extra little pizza for Keith. As I pulled it out of the car for him, Ashley realized she was hungry again. Her and I eat the same amount of food. I envy her metabolism. I gave her a piece of pizza and handed the box to Keith. Awhile later, I couldn't find Ash. I know she wouldn't run away, but I was still a bit concerned. By this time, Kyle Stark was at my house, too. He was looking for Alli because she offered him one of her Littlest Pet shop dogs or whatever. He decided to stay and play. Nobody knew where Ash had gone. She came around the front corner of the house carrying a shovel full of dirt. I asked her where she got it and she showed me. I told her to dig in the sand and to put the dirt back. In my yard. She said "OK" and headed to a bucket. She dumped my yard out of the bucket, back into the hole she created. 'Had to be there. I pointed to the sand and as I turned around, I glanced a pizza crust under my deck. First, I thought what the...but quickly remembered... Ash threw it under the deck because she didn't find a garbage. That is one way to deal with the problem I guess. I told her she needed to crawl under the deck to get it because Aunt Jodi would get stuck. {that whole metabolism thing}

These goof balls light up my life. I love taking pictures of the two of them together. They remind me of Brooke and Aidan. Ashley wears the pants in this relationship...until she changes into a dress...or skirt...or tutu...{inside joke} All things are definitely her way, but it's all good. Kyle is Ashley's long lost twin...just born on a different day. {another inside joke...the best birthday card, by the way} I am so glad they have each other.

Rockin' it out in the sand. Kyle wanted to use the shovel. Ash told him to get his own. Kyle said, "nah" and they continued on. It works.

Littlest Birthday Girl...

Happy 4th birthday, Ashley Kristine!! Auntie Jodi loves you tons and tons!!!

I'm Sooo Lucky...

My heart is so happy...

Not A Rooster...

Kyle was watching the turkey outside Tuesday. I caught a glimpse of the back of one. It was white. At that moment, it started to pour. I put on my zoom lens, put on my boots, and headed out to get a pic. I chased that damn bird into the woods, trying to get a good shot. Okay, so it wasn't all white. Even so, I've never seen this before. I don't even know why I wanted a picture. I don't like turkeys, am not fascinated by them and don't even enjoy taking pictures of "things." 'Must be so I can share with you. I showed Kyle [over and over} and showed the the big boys when they got home from school. Nobody was impressed. {I guess I don't know why anyone would be} Caleb told me it wasn't a turkey. He said it was a rooster. Yes, Caleb, a rooster, running around with all of his turkey buddies. In my backyard. Miles from any farm. With a turkey beard. Indeed, Caleb, a rooster. ;) Definitely not a rooster. {love you, baby}

Playing Catch Up...

Whew. Where do I begin? Since basketball has ended, I have been MIA. I needed and welcomed the hiatus. I think I just sat on the couch after coming home from work all last week. Or at least most of the week.

I am attempting to catch up with just one post. This seems backwards to me, but to follow the whole blog thing, I will start with the most recent stuff.

This pic is, well, I dunno. The moment was definitely waaay more cute than this photo depicts. Kyle, like all little boys, likes to mimic his daddy. I'm waiting anxiously for the day he decides to use a razor...
Last Friday I got together with my girls. My other girls. We planned on dinner out but changed it to us and kids at Johanna's. The big boys were not there and two other s were not as well but it was still a house full. Although I wanted to go, part of me wanted to stay home. you know how it is...it was my first weekend since coaching and I wanted to clean all weekend and Friday was the beginning of my weekend. I am sooo glad we planned it. The girls stayed upstairs for most of the night while the kids played...everywhere else. Later in the evening we all managed to end up downstairs with the kids. They were playing Rock Band. We were all singing along. Corinna noted that 15 years ago it was the five of us in our apartment and that night it was the 5 of us and all our children. {minus 4} What a riot. The night ended in the gym playing basketball. I have video of this and I was going to share, but I forgot to load it. There is a picture of us floating around that we wanted to duplicate that night but didn't think of it until one of us had left. Next time. Good news. I think we are going to get out for dinner after all. I think it'll be next week.

Alli and Issac turned 6 on the 19th...of March. holy cow, I have taken time off. We had cake and ice cream at the TenBrinkman's that night.

My mom and dad bought roller skates for each of the kids. We had a ball watching them take a spin. A little bit blurry but you get the idea...
Issac finally stopped when he fell and hit his face on the tile. He was a trooper.

This one makes me laugh. You can barely make out Alli in this pic. I don't know how to do all the manual stuff on my camera...

Alli wasn't quite the trooper Isaac was. She had enough at this point....
In other news, my cheer banquet was March 16. We planned it pretty much last minute because of the district games. News to me, the cheer banquet is no longer with other winter sports, including basketball. I think it is because girls and boys play at the same time now. I panicked for a few days prior, stressing about the speech. {or lack thereof} Long story short, I never even thought about what I was going to say until, um, 15 minutes prior to my arrival at the school. Well, actually, all day that day I googled banquet speech ideas and whatnot but came up with zero. Zilch. Nada. I dropped Kyle off at my mom's after work at 5:30 and headed to a quiet room where I wrote an entire speech, including specifics on each girl, in 10 minutes flat. then I was off. I shook the entire speech and my mouth was completely dry and I teared up twice but I never cried. Good for me. Those silly girls started by giving me flowers before the banquet and finished by giving me a humongous homemade card with sweet sentiments written in it by each of them and a cute teddy bear dressed in a Vikings cheerleading uniform. It is funny that they called me Coach Jodi because I've always just been coach. My tears actually came while reading my card and especially after a mom, whom I am afraid of, thanked me for personalizing my speech and telling me how much it meant from a parent's perspective. She validated me in a way. That was entirely the purpose for me coaching. I am definitely where I belong. Any sadness I've felt was washed away right then and there. I love that job. Love, love, love it! {and thank goodness it is over for a bit!!!}